This invention relates to improvements in processing poultry gizzards, wherein gizzards that have been extracted from chickens or other poultry with gut and stomach still attached thereto are moved through a processing path where the gut and stomach are separated from the gizzards, the gizzards are cut or "split" and loose material removed therefrom, and the gizzards are peeled.
In the past the viscera has been removed from poultry and processed separately. For example, the gizzard, gut and stomach are separated from the other viscera, and the gut and stomach are separated from the gizzard, the gizzard is split, and the lining is peeled from the gizzard. Prior art patents which disclose various equipment for processing poultry gizzards include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,172,148, 3,480,991, 3,990,128, 4,057,875, 4,073,040, 4,074,390, 4,183,117 and 4,203,178.
Prior art poultry gizzard processing equipment generally include an initial conveyor mechanism that supports and moves the gizzard along the beginning of the processing path while permitting the stomach and gut to hang freely by their own weight beneath the gizzard, a separating mechanism that separates the gut and stomach from the gizzard as the gizzard continues to be moved along the processing path, and a rotary disc cutter that cuts into the gizzard to "split" the gizzard. The gizzard is then transferred to a pair of helically threaded peeler rolls which engage and strip the lining from the gizzard.
The prior art gizzard processing equipment most often malfunctions when the gizzards are fed to the system too rapidly so that the stomach and gut on gizzards are intermingled, resulting in the gizzards being improperly oriented in the equipment and the gut and stomache being improperly separated from the gizzards, and in the gizzards being improperly oriented as they approach the cutter, causing a "cross-cut". Another common malfunction in the prior art gizzard processing equipment is that the rotary disc cutter becomes damaged by the hard particles that are sometimes present in gizzards, and when the cutting blade becomes dull it must be replaced or the gizzards will be improperly cut. Also, the hard objects present in gizzards occasionally collide with the rotary disc cutter and cause the gizzards to become misaligned in the system and improperly cut.
Another problem in the operation of gizzard processing equipment is contamination of the gizzards. The health regulations of the United States and other countries require the gizzards to be processed in sanitary conditions, as by maintaining the equipment during its operation in clean condition as by continuously flushing the operative elements of the equipment with streams of water and using different streams of water in different stages of the process.